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Fifth Meeting. August 20, 1870.
Hon. Mr. Mantell, F.G.S., President, in the chair.
The election of the following new members was announced :—
Hon. A. P. Seymour, Rev. J. C. Andrews, J. B. Beale, William Cooper, J. Floyd, and A. McTavish.
Periodicals and Contributions received since last meeting were laid on the table.
1. “On certain New Plants in the Herbarium of the Museum,” by T. Kirk, Secretary to the Auckland Institute. (See Transactions.) This paper described a new Pittosporum and a new Loranthus, which the author had detected when going over the Herbarium as previously undistinguished. In his paper he alluded to the insufficient accommodation that is in the museum for this Herbarium, which he considers to be the most copious and valuable in the colony.
Dr. Hector explained that every care was taken of the collection compatible with the appliances at the disposal of the Department, and admitted that the building was better adapted for geological specimens than for the preservation of perishable articles like dried plants.
2. “On the Gyration of the Winds in New Zealand,” by J. S. Hamilton. (See Transactions.) This paper pointed out the existence of a regular sequence in the changes in the direction in which the wind usually blew in the Southern Hemisphere, and the desirability of observations being made, for the purpose of discovering the law, by combined observation on the part of telegraphic operators, with a view of establishing a system of forecasting the weather.
Dr. Hector did not think that the simple suggestions thrown out in Mr. Hamilton's paper could, if acted upon, lead to the satisfactory results anticipated, owing to the peculiar configuration of New Zealand exercising a dominant influence on the gyration of the winds. He explained, with the assistance of a diagram, that a wind striking the west coast of the South Island at right angles, passed round each extremity of the island—by Cook's Straits and Foveaux Straits—thus creating opposite currents, so that a North-wester on the west side was coincident with both a N. and a S. wind on the east coast. He also drew attention to a shift in this mixing point to farther north, that had been going on during the last eighteen months, which no doubt accounted to a great extent for the unusual muddiness of our streets at this season of the year. Simultaneously with this northerly shift of wind it had been reported that large bodies of ice had made unusual approaches
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towards equatorial latitudes; but it is not yet decided as to whether this was the cause of the noticeable change in the weather lately.
In corroboration of this, Mr. Travers said the Admiralty had published for the information of mariners, an account of the extension shift of ice northward.
3. “On the probable Commercial Failure of the Suez Canal,” by G. R. George. He had received information by private letters which said, that owing to the slipping of the sides of the canal, a large quantity of fine sand was held in solution in the water, and engineers were loud in their complaints of its injurious effects on marine engines. Considerable trouble was also caused by the spewing up of the sand in the centre of the canal, which rendered necessary the constant employment of powerful dredges.
In the course of a conversation as to the practicability of clothing the sides of the canal with vegetation, Mr. Kirk said he thought the scheme practicable, notwithstanding the water was salt, as many plants could be found that would only grow within the influence of sea spray; and he believed something of the kind was in contemplation by the directors of the canal.
Dr. Hector thought the effect of blown sand would be to permanently injure the canal, as it advanced slowly in great hummocks, presenting a sloping surface on the weather side and falling off more perpendicularly on the lee side. Travellers in the East were familiar with the silicifying effect of these slow moving sand hills on vegetation.
Mr. Barron mentioned, as an instance of their extraordinary size and the rapidity with which they sometimes accumulate, that he had seen a hill of sand, eighty feet deep, accumulate in a single night on the railway between Cairo and Suez, requiring thousands of men to clear it away.
4. Mr. H. Crawford read a paper “On the adaptation of Water Power,” suggesting the advisability of forming small reservoirs—where the natural features of a locality would admit of it being done at a slight expense—so as to obtain an auxiliary head of water in dry weather. By this plan, and the help of a small turbine wheel, considerable labour could be saved in a variety of farm work; it might also be used in flax preparing.
5. The Rev. Mr. Andrews read a paper on an economic Sheepwash, consisting of equal parts of sulphur and lime, which he had found very effectual.
Mr. Pharazyn said that the application had been tried in Hawke's Bay some fifteen years ago, but was not found so successful as represented
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by Mr. Andrews—probably owing to careless mustering—and as the scab had been got rid of in a few years by the usual dressing of an infusion of tobacco, sulphur and lime had not since been tried.
Mr. Travers said that as many good remedial agents were known for scab, it was merely a matter of comparative cost.
Mr. Andrews said the cheapness of the application was its chief recommendation.
6. Dr. Hector exhibited a sample of machine prepared flax, received from Messrs. Rees and Gibson, of Wanganui, by a new process not disclosed. The process entails an additional expense of £6 per ton, but the sample possessed considerable lustre, and seemed to be entirely free from gum. He also said that experiments had recently been made in the laboratory, on New Zealand flax and Manilla ropes, which went to show that New Zealand rope shrinks up more tightly than Manilla, after saturation by fresh or salt water, and on becoming dry is more loose and free in texture, showing that the former was more prone to absorb moisture. In looking over the laboratory papers, he discovered one by Mr. Skey, which had been overlooked during the enquiry of the Flax Commission, pointing to a solution of salt as being the next best detergent to soap of any solvent that had been tried in 1866 (the time the paper was written) for cleaning the fibre. A circumstance was mentioned by him that would point to the advisability of improving the flax plant by cultivation and selection, as he had seen a strip of flax of the variety known as tihore, grown in Mr. Mantell's garden, stripped of its outer covering by the finger nail, the microscopic examination of which showed that the ultimate fibres were quite as free as in chemically prepared flax.
7. Dr. Hector called attention to the encouraging fact that a new coal deposit had been discovered a little to the south of Hokitika, about eight miles on the west side of the Kanieri Lake, showing that the coal deposits of that region extend over very large areas.